The field of the invention relates to telephonic communication systems and more particularly to automatic call distributors.
Automatic call distribution systems are known. Such systems are typically used in an organizational context as a means of distributing telephone calls among agents of the organization. To improve the consistency and quality of call handling, agents are typically segregated into groups to serve particular call targets of the organization.
Often the organization disseminates a single telephone number to its customers and to the public in general as a means of contacting the organization. As calls are directed to the organization from the public switch telephone network (PSTN), the automatic call distribution system directs the calls to its agents based upon some algorithm, typically based upon availability. For example, where all agents are considered equal, the automatic call distributor (ACD) may distribute the calls based upon which agent position (telephone) has been idle the longest.
In other systems, where skill is considered essential for call handling, a call may be directed to an agent (or agent group) considered the most skilled for the call considered. In these systems, agents are often classified according to a skill level. The classified skill level may be based upon any number of predetermined criteria.
Where skill is used in call distribution, skill is typically coupled with knowledge about the call or the caller to improve a call result. For example, dialed number identification service (DNIS) operating from within the PSTN may provide the ACD with a number that was dialed by the caller. Where the operator of the ACD has many different departments (and incoming telephone numbers), a knowledge of the department called may be used to select the agent most familiar with the department called.
Alternatively, an automatic number identification (ANI) feature (also operating from within the PSTN) may provide the ACD with a telephone number of the caller, thereby providing a means of identifying the caller. Where the caller is a prior customer, the telephone number may be used to recover an account history of the caller and the caller""s prior buying habits with regard to preferred product areas. A knowledge of the caller""s prior buying habits may allow the ACD to select an agent with the best skills in those product areas.
Alternatively, a prefix on the caller""s telephone number may be used to identify a location of the caller. By knowing the buying tendencies of a particular local (or a local language requirement), the ACD may select an agent skilled in the needs of the caller.
While skill based routing has provided an improvement over routing based upon idle time, it still has certain deficiencies. For example, the rating of an agent""s skill according to a set of predetermined criteria is often a highly subjective process, which often fails to adequately reflect an agent""s value to an organization. Accordingly, a need exists for improved methods of call routing which does not rely upon an arbitrary skill rating criteria.
A method and apparatus are provided for processing calls in a transaction processing system using a plurality of transaction processing entities. The method includes the steps of determining an average profit generated by each transaction processing entity of the plurality of transaction processing entities for previously processed calls and assigning a transaction processing entity of the plurality of transaction processing entities with a highest relative profit to each new processed call.